When Businesses Sang: An Ode to the Corporate Musical

Today in the WSJ, a look back at an underrated golden era in the history of musical theatre:

“Go Fly a Kite” was an “industrial musical,” a genre created when American industry was booming and businesses wanted fully staged live shows for corporate meetings or events. Many shows were Broadway-quality, with full sets, costumes, orchestras and plots, but they were written as infotainment that could span a day, with speeches in-between, or be performed in a meeting session. “Go Fly a Kite” ran at the Fifth Electric Utility Executives Conference in Williamsburg, Va., with songs including “PDM (Power Distribution Management) Can Do.”

Another reason 1966 was a beautiful time to be alive.

The corporate shows often involved the best Broadway talent, and really were “first-class musical theater, when you remove the fact that they are talking about, say, cleaning products” according to Sport Murphy, the co-author of “Everything’s Coming Up Profits,” the book documenting the history of the industrial musical, which the WSJ’s Pia Catton reviews today.